funicular
"funicular" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“funicular” is uncommon English (frequency #72,329 among 18,613 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #72,329
- frequency rank, English
- 18,613
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of, pertaining to, resembling, or powered by a rope or cable.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | funicular |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #72,329 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “funicular” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
funicular is uncommon English at frequency #72,329 among 18,613 “F” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for funicular, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin fūniculus (“thinner cord”), diminutive from fūnis (“rope, cord”) + -culus. The correct English form is funicular, spelled F-U-N-I-C-U-L-A-R.
Definition
- 1Of, pertaining to, resembling, or powered by a rope or cable.
- 2Of or pertaining to the umbilical cord.
- 3Having a fleshy covering of the seed formed from the funiculus, the attachment point of the seed.
- 4Synonym of catenary.
Etymology
From Latin fūniculus (“thinner cord”), diminutive from fūnis (“rope, cord”) + -culus.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “funicular”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-U-N-I-C-U-L-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.